Next!

I finished my second sock last night. I'm quite chuffed with them. I'll take some fun photos later, but for now, you'll just have to wait.

I've ordered yarn for a special pair of socks for the boy. I don't know when it will arrive yet, hopefully next week so I will have time to make them before he returns from his Dad's house. These are secret socks! The only thing I will say for now is that they'll be red (his favourite colour) and nerdy. Let those imaginations run wild!

This leaves me in a bit of a fix. I have some gorgeous Hand Maiden Casbah to make myself another pair of socks, which brings me to another issue...what socks should I knit? Honestly, I need a break from socks. I've knit four pair in what, two months? Clearly, it is time to step away from the sock needles and work with something a little different.

I have loads of yarn in my stash, so I got to thinking. What should I make? A shawl? No, I'm not in the mood for lace. I want something I can haul around without messing with charts and markers. A hat? Maybe, but I'm just not in the mood. I kept looking in my stash, and found this...

not all of the stash is shown here...
just what isn't in the shower drying!

It is a really pretty yarn, from Knit Picks. I'm not sure if it is worsted or DK, because I get 14 wraps per inch out of it and I know for sure it isn't fingering. I always find Knit Picks yarn weights to be a bit finer than they are stated though (with the exception of their lace and fingering yarns).

The yarn is Swish, and the colour is called Marine Heather, a gorgeous blue with sea green mixed in. I can't even remember why I bought it now... I made a hat for the boy out of it, and a little scarf that he never wore and has since outgrown.

But what to make? Since some of the yarn is reclaimed (yes, I unravelled the scarf and the yarn is currently drying in the shower) and I have partial balls, I had to weigh it. I THINK I have about 600 yards. I hope I have 600 yards, or you're going to be seeing a very frustrated post from me soon.

I decided to look on Ravelry for projects that take around 550-600 yards of yarn in what I suspect is a worsted weight (see above complaint about Knit Picks yarn), for adults. I want something for myself! I found a lot of shawls, cowls and scarves, but no. I'm not in the mood. Changed the search parameters around to look for sweaters (good luck, I know) and mostly found tank tops and shrugs.

I don't believe in knitted tank tops. If I'm going to wear a knitted top, it is going to be warm. If I want to wear a tank top, it is because the weather is warm. It just doesn't make sense to me. So a shrug it is. I did find some short sleeved sweaters, but I didn't have quite enough yarn for any of them.

So a shrug it is. Shrugs are great for warm weather, because you don't necessarily want a full sweater, but sometimes your shoulders and arms get a bit chilled. The only problem of course, is that a lot of the shrug patterns I was looking at just didn't appeal to me... until I found this one.

project by nonobaddog

The pattern is called Verdant, available on Ravelry. I was hoping for a free pattern, but this one is stylish and looks pretty versatile, so I shelled out the $5.35 (after currency exchange) to buy it.

It is just about perfect, really. Reasonably priced pattern, very popular (which means it is probably very well written and any errors have likely been corrected by now)... and the yardage? Estimated at 550-600 yards. Sounds pretty perfect if you ask me.

I'll be casting on today. It shouldn't take too long, since there's not a whole lot of yarn there, so hopefully by the time the yarn for the socks arrives, I will have a new shrug to show off.